We interviewed 1,000 salespeople, sales managers, business owners and Pipedrive customers about their experiences in the sales industry.
We conducted this survey between December 2019 and January 2020, when no one could have foreseen the true extent of the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact it has had on the business world. However, we believe that it still tells an important story, one which holds true today and will continue to do so as businesses around the world adapt to the challenging global economic fallout.
Watch our short video to see what is in the report
We have pulled out some of the key statistics from our report and included them in a short video, which you can watch below.
In this article, we’ve also included animations of some of the findings which we found interesting and told us a lot about the experiences of salespeople.
Salespeople feel underappreciated
The vast majority of people (70%) who identify themselves as salespeople feel underappreciated and, in fact, most respondents agree, with 69% overall saying that they believe the efforts of salespeople are underappreciated in the business world.
Sales professionals are working long hours with little reward
Our respondents are working long hours, often on weekends, and rarely getting compensated for their time. Despite that, salespeople are more likely than not to feel proud to be a salesperson, successful and satisfied in their role
The majority (68%) of sales managers work more than 40 hours a week, while more than a quarter (28%) work at least 50 hours. Over a quarter of both salespeople (26%) and sales managers (28%) regularly work weekends.
Overall, despite the majority working weekends and long hours, less than a third of respondents (32%) said they get compensated for weekend work.
Not sharing the burden
Despite working long hours and not being compensated for their work, a surprising percentage of respondents, 20%, say they don’t need to talk to anyone about the pressures of sales.
Half of the people we surveyed (47%) say that they talk to family and friends the most about the pressures involved in sales. People are least likely to turn to their managers, with only 7% saying that they talk to their managers the most about the pressures of sales activity.
Using lead generation technology
Only half (51%) of people we surveyed are using technology or automation tools to source leads. This is despite the fact that the majority of respondents at least regularly struggle to find leads.
In our survey, we discovered that there was a clear correlation between using lead generation technology and sales success. We also found out that many people in the sales industry view lead generation as a key challenge.
For more key insights on how you can improve your sales, download our report below.
